6/18/2013
The Rising Rookies of 2012 too second year slumps?
Many Rock Bands in the 90’s had a distinguished debut album and slump for a second sometimes they had to go rework and redeem themselves with a third well this is not a music story. In the 2012 -2013 season we had a phenomenal crop of rookie quarterbacks all for rookie of the year and all were in the playoffs. All drafted in the 2012 draft Robert Griffin the third, Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson displayed leadership and hope for the cities they play for.
After coming off of a horrific year of only winning two games the Indianapolis colts drafted Andrew Luck to move to a new chapter and face of the franchise. Born in Washington D.C. he Played for Stanford College and was an all American. He was the runner up for the Heisman Trophy in both 2010 and 2011. He won the Maxwell award and the Walter cup award as college’s player of the year. Andrew Luck was drafted first in the 2012 NFL draft and he was exactly what the colts were hoping for. Luck set numerous records like most passing yards in a single game for a rookie and AFC offensive player of the week 9 of 2012. Finishing the Regular season with a mark of 11 -5 and a wildcard berth. The soon to be super bowl champions the Baltimore Ravens beat the colts 24 – 9 to end the rookie season of Andrew Luck but a very promising one.
The Seattle Seahawks after hiring Pete Carroll was like a piece or two from having a complete team after missing the playoffs in 2011 with a record of 7-9. With the play of Charlie Whitehurst and Tarvaris Jackson Seattle was in need of a quarterback. In the 3rd round with the 75th pick Seattle selected Russell Wilson. Wilson played at Wisconsin during the 2011 season where he set a single season FBS record for passing efficiency 191.8 and lead his team to the big ten title and the rose bowl. Wilson was named the all big ten quarterback of the year award. Named the starting quarterback on august 26th 2012 Wilson lead the Seahawks to an 11-5 regular season mark making a wildcard playoff against the Washington Redskins. The Seahawks beat the skins 24-14 and then moved on to the ATLANTA FALCONS who were a powerhouse football team the NFC SOUTH CHAMPIONS. The Seahawks could not out do the Falcons and fell 30-28 after a heroic comeback by Wilson. A serious misconception that Wilson has is he calls the Seahawks the hawks where in fact the Atlanta NBA basketball team is the Hawks so the fans of the Falcons and Hawks found it very disrespectful that Wilson’s Classification of his team in the city of Atlanta.
The Washington Redskins franchise was always a celebrated one, a hopeful one, a historic one. Through the years the pride of D.C. was and still is the Washington Redskins. It was not since 2007 since the Redskins made the postseason. A long time coaching great Mike Shanahan came to be the head coach of the skins in 2010 and a slight rebuild with the football mind of Shanahan. At the close of the 2010-2011 seasons the Redskins had a record of 5-11 and the fans and the city wanted a winning team? There was a lot of hype surrounding the 2012 NFL Draft who will go number one Luck or RG3 well the Redskins made a blockbuster trade to get the 2nd pick Mike Shanahan’s plans was to draft a franchise quarterback in Robert Griffin the third. Griffin played at Baylor College was he won the 2011 Heisman Trophy and the first player to win it at Baylor. Griffin lead Baylor to a 10 – 6 record and beat the Washington Huskies 67-56 in the Alamo Bowl. RG3 was outstanding in the first regular season game where the Redskins visited the new Orleans Saints. The electrifying Griffin made them pay as the skins defeated the saints 40-32 in a great game. The Fans were uplifted. The Skins finished off the cowboys in the final week by the score of 28 – 18 that victory won the Redskins the NFC East Championship and eliminated the cowboys from playoff contention. RG3 had some bumps and bruises but was ready the following Sunday when the explosive Seattle Seahawks came to Fed Ex Field. In the closing moments of the game Griffin injured his knee fumbled the ball and sealed the trip to Atlanta for Seattle. The Washington Redskins fell 24-14.
Rehabilitated, seasoned, and ready for year two creates my question. Russell Wilson was very good he was the only rookie to get a playoff win beating RG3 and Luck losing to the ravens. What is out there for these second year sophomore’s? Only the NFL will tell. Will the second year be as exciting as the rookie year? I will admit all three rookies did awesome and lived up to the hype. Luck and RG3 got to the wildcard round of the postseason on two franchises that did poor the year before. That is something to build on for all these teams and hats off to them all. I would even like to give an honorable mention to Ryan Tannehill with the Miami Dolphins. That was an unbeatable rookie class can they out do what they did in the 2012 season or will the next album flop Highly doubtful but anything can transpire.
Jason Matthew Tallman
The Falconer